Good for Jeb Bush

Jeb Bush, the former governor better known as the brother and son of former presidents, testified in front of the House Budget Committee today on the state of the economy. He criticized the Dodd-Frank financial reform law and over-dependence on government institutions, repeating some of the themes from his recent Wall Street Journal op-ed on “Capitalism and the Right to Rise.” He also delighted liberals.

So I ran for office three times. The pledge was presented to me three times. I never signed the pledge. I cut taxes every year I was governor. I don’t believe you outsource your principles and convictions to people. I respect Grover’s political involvement. He has every right to do it, but I never signed any pledge.

In this fallen age of super PACs and ALEC, I don’t believe you outsource your principles sounds almost radical, even if, in actuality, it’s the most basic of moral concepts.

Mr. Bush went onto reject not just the idea of signing a pledge (any pledge), but the conceit that tax hikes are never tolerable. He said he would accept a mixed, if lop-sided, deficit-reduction package: “If you could bring to me a majority of people to say that we’re going to have $10 in spending cuts for $1 of revenue enhancement—put me in, coach.”

Ten-to-one would sound insulting in a less extreme political context. But this meager willingness to compromise puts Mr. Bush outside the Republican mainstream. Presented with the same hypothetical cut-to-revenue ratio at a debate last summer, every Republican candidate for the presidency said they’d turn it down.